Chapter 15.5: The price of freedom.

Gray (Veri) aka. “Raven” POV.

“GRAAOOUUUHH!!!”

Whipping my head up from the now falling giant that I just sniped in the left eye, I see the high demon who is practically shining like a second sun in the sky as it gathers an absolutely massive amount of mana to launch an absolutely huge and without doubt, devastating spell.

‘Shit!’

“The demon!! Target the demon! We can't let it finish that spell!” I shout as loudly as I can; and can only hope that my fellow soldiers heard me over the sounds of fighting as I notch an arrow and take aim and start firing at the demon as fast as my strengthened and quickened arms let me.

The few surrounding soldiers who heard me quickly follow my lead and start bombarding the demon with their respective method of attack; most using a bow or crossbow, but a few mages also join in and start throwing spells at the demon.

Narrowing all focus onto my target, I notch an arrow and take careful aim. As my chi art kicks in, the demon in my sights explodes into clarity.

Taking aim at his right eye, I take a deep breath, and hold it as I account for the wind and other intervening factors.

Letting my breath out, I release the arrow just as I release the last of my held breath.

Flying straight and true, the arrow hits the demon straight in its right eye and a high pitched roar sounds as the demon roars in pain and anger; and for a moment, its spell falters.

It is only for a moment, however, as the now rather badly hurt and pissed off demon seemingly gives up defence in favour of finishing its spell; even at the cost of its life.

“GRAAAAAOUUHTH!” It roars as it resumes its spell with increased speed; pouring everything it has into the spell, even going as far as fueling its own lifeforce to hurry the spell along.

“Hurry!! We must stop it!” I yell, panic audible even in my own ears as I desperately shoot arrow after arrow at the demon in a frenzy to stop its spell from completing.

Unfortunately, the demon refuses to die.

Even though it is now more arrow and bolt than flesh; burned, sliced and mutilated by magic and looking more like a burned porcupine than anything, it still stubbornly clings to life; All for the sake of completing its goal.

After weathering another moment of furious assault, the demon reaches the completion of its spell and roars triumphantly as it throws the spell towards the centre if the city. Immediately after it breathes its last breath and begins to fall limply towards the ground, its purpose fulfilled.

“Awoooouuuu!”

The beasts howl as one, as they turn tail and start a mad rush away from the city, utterly abandoning the fighting.

They are quickly followed by the other remaining monsters that are still alive, as they break away from combat and quickly rush after their comrades.

Left without enemies, I can only turn and stare dumbly in awe at the miniature sun of a spell that is falling towards the center of the city.

“Soldiers!!” a booming voice snaps me out of my stupor.

Belatedly, I realize it is Corporal Kal that is using a voice amplifying technique.

A thick silence descends on the former battlefield as the remaining soldiers all stand frozen, waiting.

“Take cover!!!”

All at once, everyone quickly scrambles to find sufficient cover in a mayhem of movement.

Glancing around, I spot Aya and Jacen and quickly run over towards them.

“Aya! Jacen!” I yell as I run to catch up to them.

Hearing my call, they look over at me and quickly indicate for me to follow.

After a few seconds of running, I catch up to them as we reach a stairway leading down from the gate wall to the ground.

After a quick sprint towards a particularly sturdy looking red brick building with a slanted roof, we quickly slip in and slam the solid steel door closed behind us.

Not a second later, the very earth starts shaking so violently that I can't stay on my feet and a moment later a wave of force and the accompanying sound of a horribly loud explosion follows.

While the house shakes violently from the force, thankfully, it seems able to weather it without collapsing in on itself on top of us.

The tremors continue for another few seconds or so, but it quickly loses its potency until it is barely perceivable unless one focuses on it.

Breathing out a sigh of relief, I look towards Aya and Jacen. Both look tired and worn, with nicks and scuffs everywhere, but otherwise seemingly unhurt.

“Are you two ok? No major injury?”

Jacen takes on a grim expression as he stares down at the floor.

Aya look towards Jacen with a grimace for a moment, staying unnervingly quiet for a long moment. But then she starts speaking, slowly.

“We’re fine… thanks to Jana. She… sacrificed herself to save us.” Aya says weakly.

Like a broken dam, she continues speaking quickly, barely taking the time to even breathe.

“We were pinned down by 2 red ogres. Just then a flight of Harrowers came diving down at our exposed flanks.

I… I didn't notice them until they were upon us.” She says, head slumped as if her strength is failing her.

“Jana… She used a shadow net spell to harass the Harrowers, to buy us time to finish off the ogres… But, we…” Aya says slowly, falling quiet mid sentence.

After a moment of silence, Jacen abruptly speaks up, grim faced and bitter of tongue.

“We weren't fast enough...

I, I wasn't fast enough!! Dammit!”

Slamming his fist hard into the floor, the floorboards creaks dangerously but except for a few cracks, seemingly holds together.

“I wasn't fast enough!!!”

Unable to find any words to console the man, I can only mutter a soft: “I'm sorry…” to Jacen as he breaks down and starts sobbing quietly while slamming his fists into the floor, cursing his inability to save his own sister.

Aya looks awkwardly between me and Jacen, unsure how to act in this situation.

Nodding towards Jacen, I say: “Stay with him. You don't need to do anything, just be here. I'm going to go take a quick look at the damage to the city, then I'll be right back.”

Nodding weakly, Aya turns towards Jacen and sits down, leaving some space in between them but still being relatively close.

Nodding slowly to myself, I turn and walk to the steel door. Right as I reach for the door, Ayas voice stops me.

“Raven… Could… could you keep an eye out for Ray? I know the odds of him surviving are extremely low… but…”

Still facing forward, I nod slowly.

“I'll keep an eye out.”

Opening the door, I quickly walk out and quickly close it again.

After a quick glance around, I make for the tallest hill around, one to the southwest of me.

Climbing the hill, I quickly make my way to the tallest building, a wooden 3 story building, and start climbing as quickly as I can while making sure it is safe, and won't come falling down.

As I reach the roof of the building, I forcefully take a deep breath to keep a scream from slipping out as I take in the state of the city;

All that remains of the former glorious center of the city with its awe inspiring guild houses and impressive academy is but a giant, burned, crater.

Similarly the former buildings turned debris in the outskirts of the center have been all but reduced to rubble by sheer power of the shockwave of the blast, and most everything within 300m of the blast epicenter has been levelled with the ground.

Depending on the quality of buildings in a district however, the damage radius of shockwave wildly changes, as it seems that the poorer districts were completely obliterated by shockwave, as it made all the way to the outer walls, while the richest district was barely damaged by the shockwave.

At particularly bad parts, like the slums, the shockwave even managed to break off and throw chunks of the walls down onto the ground in front of the outer wall, leaving large gaping holes in the wall.

Swallowing my emotions that want to run wild, I turn my attention instead towards finding a commanding officer to report to.

After a few slow minutes of watching the city for a moment, I finally spot someone of rank, over by the main gate, no less.

Quickly climbing down, I hurriedly make my way towards the main gate.

Once at the gate, I quickly find the person I am searching for, as he stands tall, battered and bruised, but not broken while yelling orders to a few dozen or so soldiers that are hurrying away to fulfill their missions of rescuing and aiding as many citizens as possible.

“Ah, Raven!” Corporal Kal says loudly over the buzz of the soldiers that are hurrying along. “It is good to see that you made it. Have you surveyed the damage done?”

“Sir!” Saluting the Corporal, I promptly relay the information that I gathered to him and await further orders.

Frowning, he takes a moment to process the information.

“Then it is as I feared… We have no way of contacting the king and can only rely on ourselves, until our plight is made known by messenger…” Shaking his head, he refocuses his gaze on me. “I need you to take a look at the surroundings; see if the monsters are gathering to finish us off or if they have left us to our fates.” The Corporal says before quickly adding:

“No going off into the wilds mind you, a simple survey from the walls should suffice, given your ability with sight enhancement.”

Nodding affirmative, I salute the Corporal before quickly scrambling up the staircase onto the walls proper and start scanning the horizon for threats.

End chapter 15.5